Writers

Newsroom

Related Topics

For two years Patrick McKenty lured women into bed and raised money from unsuspecting backers by posing as a high-ranking military officer. On Thursday, two years after being convicted of multiple charges of fraud, the Rosh Ha’ayin resident was sentenced to 10 years in jail having signed a deal with state prosecutors.

The plea bargain revealed that McKenty changed his name and forged documents, trophies and letters to establish a false identity as a senior officer in various security-related organizations from Israel and abroad, including NATO and the US army. He further engaged in such duplicitous behavior as faking calls from the IDF chief of staff and the defense minister.

He said he used the identities to convince a number of women to sleep with him, and was in the same way able to swindle hundreds of thousands of shekels out of people seeking to benefit from his ostensible contacts and resources.

In one case McKenty drove up in a car bearing diplomatic license plates and outfitted to look like the official vehicle of the regional NATO head. The car, a Cadillac, had sirens, a radio, a special gun rack and a fake uniform hanging in the back, Channel 2 news reported, saying a woman he met in this guise fell for him and left her previous boyfriend to be with him.

The judges at the Lod District Court ruled McKenty’s actions proved him a public menace. This “requires sending the defendant to a long jail term, fining him heavily and giving maximum compensation to the complainants,” they wrote in the ruling.

In addition to being sentenced to 10 years behind bars, the judges also fined McKenty NIS 200,000 ($54,000) and ordered he pay NIS 1.45 million in compensation to those who lodged complaints against him.

To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.

By signing up, you agree to our
terms
You hereby accept The Times of Israel Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and you agree to receive the latest news & offers from The Times of Israel and its partners or ad sponsors.